One of the greatest risks to the owners of smart cars is that of cyber criminals: hackers working hard to discover vulnerabilities in the latest cars so that they can hijack, ransom, steal, and perhaps even use as weapons.

Reading press reports would lead you to think that the only cars that hackers can pull off an impressive piece of over-the-air hijacking on are the latest smart cars — internet-connected automobiles — that you’d have to break the bank to afford.

But the truth is that virtually any modern car can be subverted by cyber criminals as long as there is a microprocessor that can be accessed or interfered with remotely. Find this hard to believe? Read on!

1. Bluetooth and Internet Vulnerabilities

Modern smart cars come with Bluetooth built in, at the very least to give you the convenience of hands-free (and therefore safer) calls while you’re driving. More commonly, this feature is used to pipe music from a phone through your car’s audio system. Similarly, mobile internet is being introduced into new cars, turning them into giant smartphones with wheels.

Both of these communication methods offer an avenue for hackers to deliver attacks. The recent story of the Jeep killed remotely on the highway with a Wired journalist in the driving seat was only possible thanks to vulnerabilities in Chrysler’s Uconnect feature, which controls entertainment, navigation, phone calls, and wireless hotspots in hundreds of thousands of vehicles.

Worse still, the cellular connection employed by Uconnect lets anyone who knows the automobile’s IP address to gain access from anywhere in the USA. As Charlie Miller, one of the researchers responsible, observes, “From an attacker’s perspective, it’s a super nice vulnerability.”

The answer here, of course, is to disable Bluetooth (use a cable instead) and avoid cars with mobile internet — which should be fine since a quick check of the history books reveals that cars have managed fine for the past 100 or so years without being connected to a central computer.

2. Radio Intercepts Remote Lock Signal

German car giant Volkswagen is not having a good time of it lately. Not only have they been found to have technologically suppressed emissions data, it seems that their cars are susceptible to a number of bugs.

It’s estimated by security researchers — some of whom were involved in an earlier revelation that VW’s ignition was vulnerable — that the keyless entry systems of almost 100 million cars is susceptible to an attack that remotely unlocks the car.

3. Zubie and the OBD-II Vulnerability

We’ve looked at OBD-II a couple of times over the years. This is a system that makes it possible to communicate with your car’s computer — the integrated, under-the-bonnet device that controls the electronics, power steering, etc.

You may have seen the technicians at your local repair shop connecting a computer of some sort to a hidden port in the front of your vehicle. This is what they’re using.

The key to safety here is to avoid plugging things into your OBD-II slot unless you’re confident that the device, and any related software, is trustworthy.

What Is the Risk to You?

As of this writing, the hacks featured here are almost all in the development stage. For hackers and automobile firmware developers, it’s like the Old West at the moment as boundaries are established and methods of intrusion are tried and tested.

For now, you’re probably safe. Thanks to security researchers, the kinds of holes that lead to these kinds of hacks can be plugged as each generation of smart car is released. It’s unlikely that the majority of the vulnerabilities listed here will be used against you.

But the fact that comparatively old vehicles are at risk of such a simple radio-based hack — one that will immediately relieve you of your much-loved car — will come as a major concern to anyone using a remote lock.

But what do you think? Do you feel as though you’re at risk? Will you stop using your remote unlocking key fob on your VW? Tell us what you think in the comments.